


Some Days Just Hurt

by F-117 Nighthawk (F117_Nighthawk)



Series: Pepperony Week 2K17 [7]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Arc Reactor Issues, Chronic Pain, F/M, Fluff and Angst, I'm sorry Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 15:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11512107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/F117_Nighthawk/pseuds/F-117%20Nighthawk
Summary: Sometime after IM2, Pepper discovers that sometimes the arc reactor isreallyuncomfortable for Tony.for pepperony week day seven: free day





	Some Days Just Hurt

**Author's Note:**

> aaaaa poor Tony but hey Pep is here and she makes everything better.  
> (I've had this idea all week since I wrote sunday's)

Pepper walked into Tony’s workshop, slippers squishing on the concrete floor. The CEO of Stark Industries was exhausted after a long day at work, full of fake smiles for sleazy men and fending off wandering hands. Many of the especially greasy were deterred by that one time Tony had gone after someone who harassed her when she was just his PA, but they still existed. Right now she just wanted to complain to her boyfriend and maybe a hug and to watch him as he fiddled with something. She wanted to sit on the couch in Tony’s workshop and play with U and Dum-E, tossing a rubber ball around the side not littered with machine parts and not thinking about that one deal that was on shaky ground or the other deal she had just solidified or the third that had just been proposed to her. But the man was nowhere to be seen when she walked in. “Tony?”

“Over here,” came a hoarse voice from the relatively uncluttered side of the shop.

Pepper shuffled over near his desk, sipping from her cup of tea. Tony’s voice was uncharacteristically hoarse. He had promised to tell her about any health stuff after everything that had happened with his palladium poisoning, but he wasn’t necessarily that good at remembering. 

The man in question was slumped in his chair behind his desk. Various displays flickered with blueprints and code. One seemed to have diagnostic tests from the Mk 6, another blueprints of a gauntlet, the third had a snippet of code with bits highlighted. It was a surprisingly few number of things floating around him; normally he had holograms all over the workshop and was constantly swinging between them. He seemed slightly pale, there were bags under his eyes, and he was drawn into himself.

“You okay?” she said, standing next to him. 

“Fine.”

“You don’t look okay.”

Tony sighed and rubbed his chest, just under the arc reactor. “Nothing I haven’t had before.”

Pepper leaned down a bit and wrapped an arm around him. He hissed in what sounded like pain and curled in on himself more. She quickly released him and studied him, the way he was hunched over, holding the arc reactor. “Tony, what’s wrong.”

“Arc reactor.”

A jolt of panic ran through Pepper and all thoughts of her admittedly normal day were swept away. “What’s wrong with it? Is the starkium working? Is something else failing?”

“It’s working fine, Pep. Sometimes it just. Hurts.”

Pepper set her tea down and sat in front of Tony on the desk. “What do you mean by ‘hurts?’”

Tony rubbed his chest again. His breathing was shallow, and his words stilted, sentences crafted for minimal talking. “Takes up a lot of space in my chest. Attached to ribs and sternum. Fucked up a lot of muscles. Nerve damage, but I still feel it. Always there, but some days worse.”

Oh god. Of  _ course _ the arc reactor was causing him chronic pain. It was embedded deep in his chest and was heavy and undoubtedly touching all sorts of things that would be uncomfortable. How in the world had she not noticed before? She remembered that one day Tony had absolutely refused to get out of bed, the board meeting where he had been surprisingly docile and hadn’t accidentally-on-purpose pissed off anyone, they gala that he had almost collapsed at but he had hid it well enough that only she noticed, the dozen days he had locked himself in the workshop and she hadn’t come down to find a busted up Iron Man suit or something exploded.

“Oh, Tony. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Just a fact of life. Most pain meds fuck with my immune system now, can’t take them. Nothing I can do but wait. Didn’t want to worry you.” Tony attempted to take a deep breath and sent himself into a coughing fit, doubled over with the force. Pepper leaned forward and rubbed his back, trying to ease spasming muscles.

When he finally calmed down, Pepper asked him: “If it causes you pain all the time, why don’t you get someone to take it out? And give you a pacemaker that doesn’t require a huge battery like it?”

Tony gave a weak laugh and winced. “While theoretically good physically, not good mentally. You remember Stane.” 

Pepper winced. She remembered the security footage JARVIS had showed her.

“It’s. A comfort. Blue light equals alive. Couldn’t sleep without it. Don’t trust anyone to remove it. Too much risk, anyway.”

Pepper sighed, then made a motion through Tony’s work that saved it and shut the workshop down. “I’m going to bed, and you’re coming with me. Sleep will help, and I’ll be right there with you.”

Tony managed a smile. “‘Kay.”

She helped him up, and guided him to the elevator. He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled her neck, half asleep already. Once in their room, Pepper asked him, “Does moving your arms hurt? You shouldn’t sleep in those jeans.”

“Little.”

She gently pushed him onto the bed and helped him switch into some sweatpants. Once he was changed she walked around the bed and slipped in behind him as he slowly lowered himself. “J, lights please.”

The AI obligingly lowered the lights and Pepper snuggled up next to Tony, careful not to jostle his chest. “Goodnight, Sir, Miss Potts,” JARVIS murmured.

Pepper reached a hand over and massaged the muscles around the arc reactor. “This okay?”

Tony’s only response was a happy mumble and to turn his head and nuzzle hers again. 

“So you remember that deal I was working on with Apex Electronics? Their CEO decided that he no longer liked the deal and wanted more money  _ again _ and at this point I’m considering just giving up. We can find the parts somewhere else or even make them better I bet; R&D’s got stuff in the works that I’m sure would work, I’m just not sure how long we want to wait.”

Pepper kept talking until Tony finally fell asleep. It served a dual purpose of letting her vent about the trials of being a CEO and distracting Tony from his pain.

When he finally fell asleep, she rested her hand on the arc reactor and asked JARVIS: “J, can you tell me when he’s having a day like today? I know he’s had days like this and refused to let anyone see. I don’t wanna make him deal with the board when it’s bad.”

“Of course, Miss Potts. Alert added to your preferences,” came the AI’s quiet, gentle voice.  

There was only so much she could do for him, but if it was in her power, she would. 

**Author's Note:**

> pepperony week???? is done???? nooooooooo????? but never fear! I have some fluffy ideas involving Tony and Pep and the Avengers that I'll write at some point. And I have. Motivation??? To rewrite the bits of Hell is Anything but Blue that I kinda hate that I have written???? So depending on how much hiding from family I have to do in the next month and a half bits of HAB might be ready! ~~aaa i bet I just jinxed it the rest will never see the light of day now they'll be stuck in my drive forever~~


End file.
